By Claire Corbett
Military and political leaders discuss the direction for the ADF at a recent conference.
It was telling that the important announcements in Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s speech last week at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) conference on the future structure of the Australian Army were all to do with the Navy. This is because, despite the Army’s near-constant deployment overseas and high tempo of operations over the past fifteen years, Australian military strategy defines the frontline defense of the continent as the role of the Navy and Air Force. And frontline defense is certainly on the minds of Australian politicians and military personnel: Anxiety over the situation in the South China Sea was palpable during this conference, both from speakers and within the audience.
Attendees were mostly senior Army officers, there also to hear one of the first public speeches from their new Chief of Army, former Special Forces soldier Lieutenant General Angus Campbell, who most recently headed up Operation Sovereign Borders. Campbell in fact played his cards close to his chest, saying that with the release of the Defence White Paper 2015 imminent, he was not ready to list his priorities yet. He did emphasize that, although continuing modernization and cultural renewal of the Army was critical, he was “not an adherent to the false god of high-tech war.” Like many Army commanders in what he called this age of “democratized lethality,” he emphasized the ongoing importance of “boots on the ground,” saying “war often ends on land because that is where we live.”
The prime minister’s speech had been much-anticipated as it was hoped he would give clues to the direction and policies within the long-awaited Defence White Paper 2015. When the Coalition government came to power in September 2013 it dumped the 2013 Defence White Paper, drafted under the aegis of the previous Labor Government, and commissioned a new one along with a recently released First Principles Review.
So, what clues did Abbott give to the future of Australian defense policy? First, he gave his strongest indication yet that Australia’s $50 billion future submarine would not be built in Australia, saying, “It is certainly not necessary or practical that all our defense equipment be made here in Australia but it is necessary that it be sustainable in Australia.”
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